Island Princess Review 11/6-16/08 Panama canal and Central America

[kerryw29]

It is in with the regular Reviews - but thought I should post it here as well as these were very helpful to me....

 

Background Information: I was travelling with my husband and his parents. My husband and I have been on 5 cruises in the last 5 years - RCCL (1), Carnival (1), and Princess (3). Inlaws were with us on our last Princess and one other previous Celebrity cruise. DH and I are in our late 30's, inlaws are in their late 60's. Ship Info: At first we really liked the smallness of IP. We had been on Golden and Grand Princess prior. As the days went on there were several things we did not like about this ship.

We wished that there had been laundry aft/bow on alternating floors. it was really quite a walk from the very front of the ship to the very back of the ship with 4 people's laundry.

 

Activities: We spent most of our time in the spa or pools! I don't recall every going on a tour of the spa area on the first day - so that was a new experience for me. We purchased a couples (for me and mil) pass for the thermal suite which was AMAZING. I snuck my hubby in one night to figure out how to make me a heated ceramic recliner!!

 

We also thoroughly enjoyed working out with David and had a great experience with him. I hope the products we bought from him weren't a scam :)

 

I really really enjoyed the pools and jacuzzis. we liked to go up when nobody else was around - and we could always find somewhere that a billion other people weren't there.

 

Service: This is one area where this cruise really lacked compared to cruises in the past for us. The passenger services desk was horrible. They could never help you. Our safe somehow stopped excepting our code part way through the trip - and I had to call 2 times to get someone to finally come. I called to report it. And they said that someone would come. So we waited (changed our dinner plans). waited and waited. 45 minutes later I called again. THey said - oh are you in the cabin now? I said - yes - I am waiting. They finally came 30 minutes later. Meanwhile my husband is convinced everything was stolen out of our safe :)

 

This is petty - but when I would call the services desk - I would sometimes give my inlaws cabin number when they would ask...what is your cabin number. So I would say; E202 (their number) and the dude would say - you mean E204. WELL IF YOU KNOW WHAT CABIN I AM IN WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?

 

Our other service issue: My hubby made a purchase at a ship recommended store and part of the purchase was left out of the box. so we went to the shopping desk - during their hours (after I was told I couldn't leave him a voicemail?) we waited 30 minutes. I went to the desk (right next to his desk) and said - do you know when he is expected? His hours were to start at 7:30 (it is now 8). The girl - who had already verified his hours with me....verified them again. she said well he is supposed to be here. so she tried calling him and paging him. We waited some more...nothing. Finally she said she would get him a message to call me. We waited a day - nothing. So I went again - and happened to get the same girl. I said that we had never heard from him, she said "like i told you he is sick" I said you never told me that....you said you were trying to reach him and that you would have him call me. I am sorry the man was sick - but I am sure there was a way that he could have let someone know before his set hours that he wouldn't be there. The issue is supposed to be resolved with our purchase - though it hasn't been as of yet.

 

Shore Excursions: we only had one organized excursion and i was in Jamaica. DH and I had been to Jamaica a few times before - and had no desire to be there again. INlaws had never been so they booked a "best of" type tour for all of us. We very much enjoyed it!

 

Cartegena: We actually enjoyed this port - and wished we had done some type of tour/excursion after watching them on the tv. We basically bought coffee and chocolate here :)

 

Costa rica: We did not feel safe here. Again - had we participated in an excursion I am sure it would have been better... alas. We did buy some coffee here. But we went to the market recommended by the ship - and did not see a single other passenger....so we left.

 

Aruba: I wish we had been here longer and not on a Sunday :) That is all.

 

Panama Canal: We really enjoyed this whole experience. We did not have an excursion booked..so we stayed on the ship and went through the locks a second time. We ended up being in the dining room while we were lowered into a lock - and that was quite eerie!

 

Cristobal: Thoroughly enjoyed this!! We bought lots of goodies here!

 

Stateroom: Category C Oceanview. We typically have inside cabins (other than one time with a balcony). The window was a nice treat. My only complaint in the rooms - is the damn shower :) YOu had to stand cattywompous to not bang yourself on the handicapped bar. and the shower curtain is VERY friendly. Once my hubby figured out how to get the water hot - it was must more enjoyable!.

 

The bed was not the best. We had a really bad night the first night - so i requested an eggcrate. it got a bit better. Dining: This was another one of our unhappy areas. We had selected anytime dining. The first night our cards were checked to see if we were in the right place. The second night I believe they were too. After that they weren't checked. I did read another review of our exact cruise - and they mentioned not have sanitizer available in the dinging rooms. We had an entirely different experience Joanna (whom we actually called sanitizer girl) was there everytime we went in the dining room and squirted us...the same was true up in the buffet. Anyway - for some reason I never got the info that we should request the same dinging service crews - I wish we had. We had great service and HORRIBLE service. Unfortunately we had more of the latter. We basically dined at the same time every night...some nights we had no trouble getting in. Others we were asked to go upstairs to the fixed dining room. THe first time this happened - we were like - whatever - should be the same. WELL IT was awful. By the time we would be seated upstairs in whichever section - the other tables would be well into their courses. So we would sit and sit and sit. Waiting 20+minutes even for WAter! We happened to be up there for lobster night - and it was awful. The tables all around us were well into their courses and we were ordering. My husband politely asked for 2 lobster tails. You would think he had asked for the waiter to give birth to the entire state of TEXAS. Maybe we have just been lucky- but nobody has ever batted an eye if we asked for seconds of anything - especially LOBSTER! On our first cruise (RCCL) our waiter brought both of us 2 lobster tails and even had 2 more ready for my hubby - as we had told him it was his favorite. We are used to 2+ pounds lobsters from Maine....not a tiny tail. ANYWAY.

 

My other issue - was in all of our past cruises every meal - we have had a hard time picking just one thing to order - it seemed on this cruise - we had a hard time picking one thing that we wanted to order. ODD.

 

We did eat in Bayou one night - we enjoyed it. it was worth the extra fee. The sausage was YUMMY, filets were good, I remember not liking the corn muffins. Pickled turnip was interesting! We didn't like the alligator either.

 

The buffet got really old. It really seemed to be the same stuff day in and out.

 

We enjoyed the pizza, and hot dog/hamburger bars.

 

FIL and DH used the ice cream bar at least once...i took advantage of the ice cream on the buffet a few too many times!

 

we really enjoyed breakfast and lunch in the dining room. Entertainment: We didn't go to any of the shows. Side note: I was surprised to learn later in the cruise that the dude from Grease was on board and in a show. I saw him in the Horizon Court...which is how I found out. He eats his steak Medium well - by the way!

 

We didn't use the Casino (our wallets thank us - Princess I am sure wishes that I had given into my addiction to Black Jack!) We did watch a lot of the movies in our cabins that played back to back all day long.

 

Disembarkation: This was a big part of our bad experience on this cruise. MIL purchased 4 ship transfers in which she stated our flight departed at 11:15 AM. We received 2 tickets and they received two tickets...our cabins were right next to each other. The night before we were to disembark - inlaws got the right tags - Red 3...and we got the wrong tags - Gold 5 or something. Allowing us to be off the ship between 10 and noon - well that won't work. We look at the breakdown on the sheet and it shows that Red 3 is for people with flights departing after 11 am...and before some other time. Gold 5 was for the entire Emerald deck with no special flight constraints. We call down and the Passenger Services deck (yet again) proved to be less than helpful and not knowledgeable. We finally went down in person with our transfer tickets....and flight info - and the service person said that it couldn't be changed. MIL said we could just use her tags (red 3) and we winged it. Thankfully it worked. But it might not have - and we got lucky!

 

The transfer we paid for was a RIP OFF. We had to be smushed into a big bus with a million people for $15/person and then were dropped off at an inconvenient location where we (my fil has congestive heart failure) had to walk forever with our luggage to get to Jetblue. RIPOFF. And to think we were disappointed that we didn't get a transfer to the ship!

 

Overall we enjoyed the itinerary. We will not be doing another Princess cruise before we go back to another line. I hope we can do Royal again.

 

***

I realized last night after I hit submit - I didn't say much about our steward. Mervin was ok. He did a good job on keeping our room clean, new us fairly well (though never said our names). He even let me into our inlaws room once when nobody was around...so he at least knew us - and our inlaws. i was sometimes disappointed to come back to the room from dinner and find that he hadn't been there. I don't recall that ever happeneing on a cruise before. It seemed no matter when we left - the steward always went in and did their thing. Mervin didn't...again - it was fine - he always got to us - just not when I thought he would. We somehow never got a Service/Privacy Please card either - so that could have been our issue.

[kerryw29]

Geez - I just thought of something else that peeved us.

 

We spent some time in the card room with my inlaws. They are (well used to be) big time card players - so we let them teach us some of the games they used to play.

 

anyway - one day we were up there...and my hubby noticed - A LOT of water on the tile floor near one of the plants. Looking like it had leaked after being watered. (this was in teh entrance way to the cardroom - and unavoidable to step in if you didn't see it) We stepped over it (it was super easy to slip on) and walked to our room. Russell fretted about this for a few minutes. He said it should be cleaned up - somebody i liable to get hurt.

 

he said I don't want that on my shoulders. So he called passenger services and told them. Said there was some water spilled in the cardroom on tile floor - could someone come clean it up - he didn't want someone to fall down and hurt themselves and then sue princess (his exact words).

 

we happened to go through there a couple hours later - and the WATER was STILL there.!!!

 

The next day it was still there!! And even the next day. By then it was drying up on its' own.

 

We couldn't believe it. We joked about going back and slippin g in ourselves to get a free cruise - but decided Royal Carribean probably wouldn't give us a free cruise for slipping water in the card room :)

[Guest arowe6]

The buffet got really old. It really seemed to be the same stuff day in and out.

 

 

Yes. The most disappointing part of the cruise for us. :mad:

[lovingretirement]

Thanks for sharing your review. Sorry we didn't get to meet you on the ship. We didn't experience any of the problems that you encountered on the ship. Were you aware that they had free ice cream and warm cookies from 3:30 to 4:30 each day in Horizon Court? We thoroughly enjoyed all the performances with the Island Princess dancers and singers. They we great! This was our third time to see these shows on different Princess ships and these performers were the best by far.

 

We learned that all the beds are not the same. I asked the steward for an egg crate the first thing. He suggested I try the bed first. Was I ever surprised! Our bed was teriffic. (I can't say the same for the new mattress we had on the Star in June.) We felt quite lucky. The only problem we experienced was the lack of a door between our balcony and our friends' balcony next door. We have always used this as a passageway.

[OCruisers]

Thanks and Appreciate Your Report!

[lovingretirement]

Thanks for sharing your review. Sorry we didn't get to meet you on the ship. We didn't experience any of the problems that you encountered on the ship. Were you aware that they had free ice cream and warm cookies from 3:30 to 4:30 each day in Horizon Court? We thoroughly enjoyed all the performances with the Island Princess dancers and singers. They we great! This was our third time to see these shows on different Princess ships and these performers were the best by far.

 

We learned that all the beds are not the same. I asked the steward for an egg crate the first thing. He suggested I try the bed first. Was I ever surprised! Our bed was teriffic. (I can't say the same for the new mattress we had on the Star in June.) We felt quite lucky. The only problem we experienced was the lack of a door between our balcony and our friends' balcony next door. We have always used this as a passageway.

 

Sorry about the frown on the title "Nice Review". I was trying to put a frown face by the statement about the mattresses on the Star. I don't know why it went by the title. I assure you I was not trying to be sarcastic. I appreciate your review.

[kerryw29]

Thanks for sharing your review. Sorry we didn't get to meet you on the ship. We didn't experience any of the problems that you encountered on the ship. Were you aware that they had free ice cream and warm cookies from 3:30 to 4:30 each day in Horizon Court? We thoroughly enjoyed all the performances with the Island Princess dancers and singers. They we great! This was our third time to see these shows on different Princess ships and these performers were the best by far.

 

We learned that all the beds are not the same. I asked the steward for an egg crate the first thing. He suggested I try the bed first. Was I ever surprised! Our bed was teriffic. (I can't say the same for the new mattress we had on the Star in June.) We felt quite lucky. The only problem we experienced was the lack of a door between our balcony and our friends' balcony next door. We have always used this as a passageway.

 

Yes sorry were weren't too social with the meet and mingle at the beginning of the cruise.

 

it is truly amazing how people can have no issues and others have tons! I am glad you had a great cruise.

 

we were aware of the cookies and ice cream in horizon and took part in it several times (though it was only because we stumbled on it)

 

i learned on this cruise - either I didn't read the patter well enough - or I can't read at all :)

[JWJs]

kerryw29 ~ thanks for posting your review on this board. :)

 

Sounds like you made the best of your cruise even though there were many instances and situations that you were very much less than happy about.

 

I think it's horrible that the water was left on the floor in the card room area for days after you all reported the problem.:eek: I so agree...someone could have been hurt if they slipped. Sure wonder why the Island crew didn't jump on getting that handled.:confused:

[Grego]

Wow!

 

I guess I will have to start looking a little harder to find stuff to write about.

[hobo1937]

Thanks for sharing your review. Sorry we didn't get to meet you on the ship. We didn't experience any of the problems that you encountered on the ship. Were you aware that they had free ice cream and warm cookies from 3:30 to 4:30 each day in Horizon Court? We thoroughly enjoyed all the performances with the Island Princess dancers and singers. They we great! This was our third time to see these shows on different Princess ships and these performers were the best by far.

 

We learned that all the beds are not the same. I asked the steward for an egg crate the first thing. He suggested I try the bed first. Was I ever surprised! Our bed was teriffic. (I can't say the same for the new mattress we had on the Star in June.) We felt quite lucky. The only problem we experienced was the lack of a door between our balcony and our friends' balcony next door. We have always used this as a passageway.

 

You might want to see if the matress is turned upside down. On our recent Diamond Princess cruise, the side of the bed I was on the first night was horrible...woke up with back pain. The next night I tried the side my husband had slept on and it was ok. We pulled the sheets up and found on the "bad" side the matress was upside down. We flipped it over and viola! it was now ok.